


In Which Aela Does a Sidequest

by Eisoj5



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 17:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eisoj5/pseuds/Eisoj5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ysolda wanted a mammoth tusk. Aela tries to get her one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which Aela Does a Sidequest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Laylah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laylah/gifts).



Ysolda wanted a mammoth tusk.

It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to Aela, why a Khajiit would decide that mammoth tusk procurement was the best evidence for someone’s mercantile abilities. But Ysolda had been quite clear in the matter: find one mammoth tusk for her and there would be payment. _“It should be easy” Ysolda had said. “They have four, after all. I just need one.”_ And Aela could use a bit of gold; her quiver was starting to feel light on her back these days, and she was, admittedly, not the greatest fletcher in the Hold.

The problem was, of course, that hunting mammoths was a task better accomplished by a full complement of Shield-Brothers and Shield-Sisters. The giant that had wandered too close to the hold capital had been challenging enough for three or four Companions; the Pelagia farmworkers were, as usual, no help at all. And as good an archer as Aela was, unless she struck true through the eye, the arrows would be little more than splinters against a mammoth’s tough hide.

So she found herself jogging out north of Whiterun in search of a pair of poachers she'd heard rumors of, in hopes that they’d unlawfully killed a mammoth and that she could buy a tusk off of them.

Or kill them for the tusk. Either way. Aela supposed the Jarl might actually reward her for the latter.

Her boots crunched the dry grass as she ran. Off in the distance she could see giants’ fires burning, and the smoke curling off to the west. She hoped the wind change meant snow was coming, but doubted it; it had been years since Whiterun saw a good snowfall. The farmers were constantly complaining about it, though they still did more than well enough in the market. 

The smell of blood and death carried on the air a long way, or at least it did for a werewolf. Aela followed the scent up into the foothills. As she came over the crest and looked down into the hollow, she saw the freshly killed mammoth among the skeletons of its brethren.It was true, then, perhaps, that the mammoths returned to the graveyards of their kind. True and fatal—for there were the two poachers, as well.

One was painstakingly carving away at a mammoth’s flank when her arrow whizzed past his ear and buried itself in the portion he had begun to remove.

“I’ve another aimed at your heart,” Aela called out. “Give me what I want and I won’t have to kill you.” She paused. “Or take you in.”

He turned. The other poacher drew her belt knife and advanced on Aela.

“The more fool you,” Aela muttered to herself. She swung her bow to cover the woman. “I just want a mammoth tusk,” she shouted. 

“So do I,” the woman said, and closed the distance between them at a run.  
Aela loosed a warning arrow that lodged deep into the poacher’s right shoulder, through the scaled armor. “Any closer and the next will be your last.” 

The woman cried out and halted a few yards away. “You’re the Huntress,” she said through her teeth. “No other woman would dare wear that paint.”

“Yes, I am.” Aela kept her voice cool. She nocked another arrow but lowered her bow to her side. “Willing to deal now?”

“Maybe.” The poacher sheathed her belt knife and reached up to pull the arrow out of her shoulder. She broke the shaft in her hand, then tossed it aside. Aela noticed she flinched only momentarily, and then there was the telltale glow of a restoration spell on her fingers as she touched the wound.

“You’re tougher than you look,” Aela acknowledged curtly. “But you know I’ll get what I want in the end.”

The poacher shrugged. “Maybe,” she repeated. There was a glint in her eye. 

Aela fought down a rising snarl. “What is it you want in trade?”

The other woman grinned—almost wolfishly, Aela thought—and said, “Perhaps I want your reputation, Huntress. The bravest and boldest of all the Companions. Name me that, and you can have your tusk, since you don’t _dare_ to kill for one yourself.”

Anger coursed through Aela at the insult, and a rumbling growl rose from her throat, one she didn’t bother to temper. “I follow the law of the Jarl,” she spat.

“Then go and tell your Jarl that you tried to buy off two poachers.” The woman laughed. “I’ve work to do here, _Huntress_.” 

The other poacher had been circling around the mammoth skeletons while Aela and his partner bargained. As Aela unconsciously began to growl louder, he drew his war-axe and charged.

Aela’s beast self took over completely. Her limbs lengthened, and her bow fell to the ground as claws sprang from her fingertips. Her reddish hair spread down her body as fur as she finished her change. 

With one swipe, she knocked him sprawling. Blood streamed from gashes through his hardened leather armor. The woman screamed at her then—an incoherent cacophony to Aela’s transformed ears—and a stream of fire leapt from her hands, scorching Aela’s fur. Howling, Aela raced towards the poacher. She drove her to the ground and clawed at her until the woman stopped moving underneath the weight of her wolf form.

Soaked with blood, she sat back on her haunches. Panted for several long moments. Licked her claws clean.

Then, padding footsteps—Aela sniffed the air. Little brothers and sisters, coming out of their dens for the evening hunt.

She turned and saw the wolves approaching her cautiously. Let a half-greeting rumble from her muzzle. Backed off a short distance to let them smell the dead mammoth, the dead poachers.

Fell asleep waiting for the little brothers and sisters to finish feasting on the mammoth.

Aela woke to find their warm bodies curled up around her. She sighed; she was human once more. Human, and all too aware that losing her temper had had deadly consequences once again. 

At least she had the tusk. 

 

 

*****

A happier ending:

“By the way, I think I figured out why you needed the mammoth tusk,” Aela said over her shoulder to Ysolda. “You had to show the Khajiit that you knew how to convince someone.”

Ysolda smiled. “That was part of it,” she replied. “The other part…” She stroked a hand caressingly down the smooth curve of the tusk and looked up at Aela lasciviously. “I thought I could show you one of the uses of mammoth tusks.” 

…

Later, Aela rolled over in Ysolda’s bed. “You certainly are convincing,” she said. “But you know, horker tusks are much easier to come by!”

**Author's Note:**

> _I play the game largely to run around and explore; explore something you like about it in your fic, and give me that._
> 
>  
> 
> That's how I play, too. I hope this fic captures some of that random-encounter feel!
> 
> Thanks to Isis for the beta, as always :)


End file.
